1. The Israeli Counter-Attack on Yemen
As you probably read, Israel launched a counter attack against the Houthis in Yemen yesterday. Israel attacked the port town of Hodeidah, Yemen, which is apparently used as one of the main supply areas for the delivery of weapons from Iran to the Houthi forces. Interestingly, Hodeidah had a large Jewish population at one time, with members of the Jewish community very active in trade, commerce, crafts and other artisanal efforts. As with most of the rest of the Yemenite Jewish community, the Jews of Hodeidah left Yemen as part of Operation Magic Carpet in 1948-49 and immigrated to Israel.
The targets hit by Israeli forces included oil fields and power stations. Israel used fighter jets that flew on a 1700 km mission (each way) to carry out the counter attacks. The attacks came after Yemen claimed responsibility for its drone attack against Tel-Aviv on Thursday night that killed one Israeli and injured 8 others. Since October 7, 2024, the Houthis of Yemen have also been launching numerous missile attacks against Eilat and other parts of Israel, attacking Israeli ships and other ships bound for Israel - and taking other hostile actions against Israel. The Houthis are armed, trained and supported by Iran and have been used as one of the proxies of Iran since October 7, 2023 to attack Israel without the attacks coming directly from Iran other than on one occasion. The Houthis have reported that 3 people were killed and many others injured in these Israeli counterattacks.
The Houthis, the Iranians and various other groups are now vowing further attacks against Israel in response to this counterattack - so it seems reasonably likely that things will continue to escalate between Israel and Yemen and sooner or later between Israel and Iran - which is the main source and force behind just about all of the fronts that Israel is currently facing in the current war.
I just saw an interview with a Tel Aviv resident who was asleep on his balcony one building over from the drone attack in Tel-Aviv. Debris from the drone crashed through his makeshift roof and destroyed one of the two sofas he had on the balcony. He was sleeping on a sofa that was connected to the other sofa that was destroyed. He was in remarkably good spirits for someone who had been just a few feet away from likely death. When asked about this, he said "I am especially thankful that the debris didn't destroy my barbecue. That would have been a real disaster."
I don't mean to make light of the situation. One person was killed by this drone attack and 8 others were injured. But sometimes, a sense of humour is the way people deal with very stressful situations.
2. The Olympics
As you know the Olympic games open this week - on Friday. Some events start before the official opening. The Israeli men's soccer team will be playing its opening game against Mali on Wednesday. That is very exciting since it is only the second time in Israel's history that its soccer team has qualified and will be participating in the Olympic games. In the first round, Israel will also play Paraguay and Japan. They will need to come up with some major upsets to get out of this group and advance to the next round.
But the big story in Israel - is the security concerns. Israeli athletes in a wide range of sports have been receiving death threats, mock funeral notices and subjected to all kinds of other intimidation tactics.
The athletes all seem resolved to press ahead, represent Israel and put their trust in the security arrangements that are being made to protect them. But these threats are very frightening and I can imagine that it must be quite difficult to have that additional layer of worry - while preparing for the biggest sports challenge of one's life.
3. Adidas
In a related note, as you might have read, Adidas chose this occasion to roll out a new advertising campaign for a retro shoe - its 1972 version of one of its sneakers. Hmm.... Adidas chose to use Bella Hadid for its advertising campaign. Hadid has been a fierce defender of Palestinians and Hamas since the October 7, 2023 attacks. And as you might recall, 1972 is the year in which Palestinian terrorists attacked Israeli athletes and murdered 11 athletes and coaches. So when you string all of this together, this was quite obviously a pro-terrorism, anti-Israel campaign by Adidas to commemorate, in a positive way, the massacre of Israeli athletes. Completely disgusting. After receiving all kinds of complaints (Not only from Israelis and Jews), Adidas has apparently "suspended" this offensive campaign. Adidas has claimed that it "didn't make the connection..." I will leave it to intelligent readers to draw their own conclusions.
4. Ultra-Religious Enlistment
As you might recall, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that Israeli Haredim (ultra-religious) are no longer entitled to an exemption from the army and must now be recruited like everyone else. Apparently, today is the first day that thousands of ultra-religious 18 year-olds began receiving conscription orders. It remains to be seen whether they will actually report for duty and if so, how many, but there is a sense that the landscape on this issue is starting to change. We may soon seen large numbers of Haredim in the Israeli army.
5. Prime Minister Netanyahu
Prime Minister Netanyahu is planning to fly to the U.S. this week and address a joint session of Congress. He is also supposed to meet with President Biden and apparently he will also meet with former President Trump. The meeting with Biden is contingent of course on whether Biden is healthy enough to meet Netanyahu and whether Netanyahu can be assured that Biden is no longer contagious. Netanyahu is not particularly interested in picking up a case of Covid - even though thousands of Israeli soldiers are risking their lives as we speak in much more dangerous ways.
Netanyahu is, of course, looking to bolster U.S. assistance in the war with Gaza as well as all of the other fronts that Israel is currently facing - including Hezbollah, the Houthis, the Syrians, the Iranians, the Iraqis and other potential threats. Netanyahu is certainly looking for assurances that the U.S. will continue to supply much needed weaponry as well as diplomatic support.
For the U.S., the current administration is quite interested in bringing the war to an end and is likely to push Netanyahu to agree to a deal. Apparently, the parties are fairly close to a deal though there are a number of issues that have not yet been resolved. One issue relates to the Gaza-Egypt border - and what assurances will be in place to keep Hamas from being resupplied with weapons through this border. Israel would like to retain some level of control over that border which it now controls.
A second concern is that Hamas has been insisting on the right to send armed forces to reestablish control over northern Gaza. Israel has not been prepared to agree to this condition, which would lead to further hostilities very shortly.
There is some concern that Netanyahu will be using the trip to try to pressure Biden and campaign implicitly (if not explicitly) for Trump, just as he did while Obama was President. It is a calculated gamble by Netanyahu since there is always the possibility that things could turn around for the Democrats and he will have alienated an administration that he would have to work with. Moreover, it is not even clear that Trump will be as supportive as expected, if Trump does win. J.D. Vance has espoused some very isolationist views and is certainly unclear that Trump will be as great for Israel as many assume.
Finally, it hasn't escaped anyone in Israel's attention that Prime Minister Netanyahu's son, Yair, will be celebrating his 33rd birthday on Friday July 26, 2024. Netanyahu will of course stick around after speaking at Congress to help his son celebrate. It is unclear what form the celebrations will take or whether they will be paid for by the State of Israel. No one seems to know what Yair is even doing in the U.S. but he has requested a diplomatic passport and full 24 hour security detail. I'm not about to speculate on what Yair has been up to - (other than sending out obnoxious twitter feeds) but I know that his father really enjoys fine wines, Cuban cigars and high end meals. So it will probably be a pretty nice celebration, wherever it takes place.
6. Flying to Israel
As you may have seen, Air Canada announced that it would now cancel all flights through November 2024 at least between Canada and Tel-Aviv. El Al stopped flying directly a while ago. So if you are planning a trip between Toronto and Tel-Aviv, you can either fly through the US and connect with one of the El Al routes - or you can travel through Europe. El Al flights are generally heavily booked and very expensive.
For my next flight, I am planning to fly Aegean via Greece and the pick up an Air Canada flight. We will see how that goes. I haven't tried that route yet.
That's all for now. As usual, hoping for a deal that leads to the safe return of all of our hostages, the safety of our soldiers, some type of lasting peace deal for the whole region - and best of health for everyone otherwise.
